Rotary and Coca-Cola Beverages team up to fight polio in Pakistan

On 7 April, in honor of World Health Day, a team of Rotarians, Rotary partners, and employees from Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan joined forces to pick up garbage and conduct a cleanup campaign in Union Council 4, Gadap Town, Pakistan.

Gadap Town is one of Karachi’s high risk areas for the wild polio virus, and was chosen for the cleanup campaign because environmental samples have tested positive for the virus since 2009. Union Council 4 is the most populous of Gadap Town’s eight Union Councils, with a population of 450,000.

Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan will imprint an awareness message on all Coca-Cola bottle labels in the country, and will upload a Polio ringtone message on their call center answering machine. In addition, the company will provide billboard sites for Polio National Immunization Day messages, and signs to be place in shops within districts where the wild polio virus has been reported. The company will also provide Coke vans to transport polio vaccines.

On behalf of 1.2 million Rotary members worldwide, including more than 5,100 in Pakistan, I would like to extend my thanks to Coca-Cola Pakistan for its generous support and dedication to ensuring that all children are reached during our national polio immunization campaigns. Working together, we are one step closer to a polio-free Pakistan, and a polio-free world.